, but also with respect to israel's growing challenges on its borders, particularly in lebanon with hezbollah in the south with gaza and egypt and, of course, with syria. the last thing that the united states wants is for netanyahu and the israeli people the belief that the president does not have his back and they would have to act unilaterally without due american consultation with israelis. >> and we know, michael, that the president is going to be going to ramallah to be talking to president mahmoud abbas. talked to one palestinian legislator who laid out conditions for returning to the negotiating table. either israel puts a six month freeze on the building in the west bank and they don't pursue international criminal court, or they come to some agreement on borders along the pre-1967 lines. do you see in any of this any hope for progress? >> well, unfortunately, not much, chris. i don't think that israel or frankly the united states are going to go along with those preconditions. and i think the only way negotiations are going to get restarted is if they're unconditional. and you know,